Even If the Enemy Is Fate
Years had passed since the girl settled in the village.
It had been awkward at first. But the village's goodwill and its warm, steady love had opened her heart little by little, until she was one of them.
"Hmm..."
She stood at the edge of the stream, studying herself in the water.
"Like this?"
She swept her hand through the air, and the water leapt up after it, shifting shape from one instant to the next. When she set it back as it had been, she let out a long breath.
"Serviceable at last."
"What are you doing?"
Yeomsu had come up beside her.
"Studying water."
"Studying? What's that?"
"An attempt to seek a thing out and understand it."
"You only ever say weird stuff."
Yeomsu looked thoroughly unimpressed.
"What's so great about water? This is way cooler."
Fire burst from his hand.
Fwoooosh!
The flame shot clear across the stream and struck Seokche, who had been sitting blankly on the ground. Even taking the fire full on, he rose as if it were nothing new, and dirt and pebbles shed from his body with every movement.
"What."
"Who told you to just sit there and take it? Blehhh—bet you're mad now!"
Yeomsu stuck out his tongue. Seokche regarded him with perfect indifference.
"Runt."
"You walking boulder!"
One word from Seokche and Yeomsu flew into a rage. The girl paid the pair no mind. She was used to them.
"You're not getting away with this!"
"Hack."
"Hey!"
Fire streaked through the air and the ground boomed underfoot. Flame and stone crashed together, but it was only a children's squabble—and fire, by its nature, cannot overcome the earth.
"Let go! I said let go!"
"Education. Needed."
"W-wait, hyung? Spare me!"
Yeomsu was being buried alive. To the girl, it hardly mattered.
"Hmmm."
She was training.
Yin and yang, the Five Phases, and the Eight Trigrams are not enough to define nature.
Master those two theories alone and no one could follow her. But to a girl who walked with nature and looked up at Heaven, they were little better than a beginner's primer.
All I can handle now is fire, water, earth, and wood.
Fire spouted right beside her, and the earth got up and walked, so she had learned them by watching. Water was the most necessary thing in a life, and so she had grasped it on her own. Wood had grown familiar while she wandered the forest, until familiarity became understanding.
Metal and heaven. Yin and yang. There is still a vast road ahead.
She dusted off her hands and stood.
"Uwaaaah."
"Education. Successful."
Yeomsu lay pinned beneath Seokche, wearing the face of a corpse.
"Come along. We're late."
"Hm? The time?"
Seokche turned his head. The glowing stones that served him for eyes found the sinking sun.
"Going back."
"Ghhhkk."
The moment Seokche climbed off, Yeomsu crawled free.
"Spare me the theatrics. What could possibly be so hard?"
"You are seriously..."
Yeomsu turned a resentful glare on her.
"If it hurts, don't pick a fight."
"I can't do that. I'm gonna prove fire is the strongest."
"You. No chance."
Seokche shook his head.
"Grr! One day I'll beat you, just you wait!"
"Hack."
Leaving the worn-out argument behind her, the girl started off.
"Wait for us!"
"Fast."
Footsteps came pelting after her, and the three of them returned to the village.
"You little brats! I told you not to stay up on the mountain till all hours!"
"Gah! The auntie's here! Run for it!"
Yongnyeo came out to meet them in high spirits, fire rolling from her mouth.
"Auntie?! The nerve of you!"
"Aaaaah!"
She caught Yeomsu and dangled him in the air. A slender woman hoisting a child one-handed was a jarring sight.
"Admire the sky for a moment!"
"Save me!"
Yeomsu sailed into the heavens.
"Noona. Me too."
Seokche came up to her with his eyes glittering.
"Hm? A-all right..."
Sweat beading, Yongnyeo heaved him up. A hill rose into the air.
"Huff! Huff!"
Before anyone quite noticed, she was half dragon and half human.
"Off you go!!!"
"Waaah!"
The hill flew across the sky.
Thud.
Someone's waist went with it.
"Ghk!"
Yongnyeo collapsed.
"Are you all right?"
"A little... a little spit and it'll be fine..."
She clutched at her back.
"Tsk. I knew it would come to this."
"Ha ha... this isn't so easy either."
Yongnyeo arched hard and cracked her spine. The waist that had flown off came back.
"Aigo. Maybe I ought to go catch meat with Uncle Donpal."
"And you think that would put any strength on you?"
The young woman before her was one of the foremost powers in a place where every sort of oddity ran wild. The Donpal she had named was no mean strongman himself. But how was a pig to overcome a dragon?
"Hm?"
A commotion had risen at the village entrance.
"Bring a stretcher!"
"If it's to wrap them, bring anything!"
People came bursting out of the village.
"What's happened?"
"I couldn't say..."
Yongnyeo and the girl started toward the noise.
Oink!
Something squealed behind them. They ignored it.
"Heavens!"
"What in the world happened out there?!"
"Stay with us—stay with us!"
Pushing through the crowd, they found the hunters drenched in blood. Head, belly, arms—no part of them had been spared. One was already wandering the border of death.
"Don't look."
Yongnyeo covered the girl's eyes at once.
"Take your hand away. I have seen worse than this."
She had watched human beings cooked alive. What was a little blood?
"This isn't a child's worry. Go back to Raccoon Auntie."
The girl refused.
"Mmm."
Slipping free of Yongnyeo's hand, she went closer to the hunters.
"Child!"
Someone was coming up behind her, but only for a moment. Among the hunters, Hwani spoke as if the words themselves grieved him.
"The barbarians... the barbarians have appeared."
Silence took the village.
"What did you say?"
The old man leaning on his staff stared, eyes wide.
"The whole country is being laid to waste by the barbarians."
At the truth of it, the life drained from the villagers' faces.
"The war? What of the war?"
"...The war is beside the point. The barbarians swagger across the land as if it were their own house. What use is a war?"
Beside Hwani, Gyeoni spoke between ragged breaths.
"Up-country, refugees and barbarians are all tangled together. Chaos everywhere."
He pressed hard on his bloodied shoulder.
"...The lower villages have already been burned and plundered."
Despair sat on his face.
"The country is dying."
The old man folded to the ground.
"Heaven has abandoned us!"
Anxiety swelled. A thing they had only ever heard of, vague and distant, now pricked the skin. Reality struck.
The girl ran for the raccoon.
"Raccoon! Are you there!"
The girl was gasping.
"You've come?"
The raccoon stepped out, wiping her hands.
"Did you know?"
At the girl's words, she went still.
"The barbarians are at our throats."
The girl glared at her.
"Did you know of this?!"
The raccoon squeezed her eyes shut.
"Yes... only dimly."
A lament broke from her.
"So they have come after all."
"You saw it in the stars. Why did you not speak?"
Had she said so sooner, things might have been different. But it was already too late to get clear.
"Because it is the will of Heaven."
"The will of Heaven?! Are you playing with me?!"
I did not come here to listen to evasions!
The raccoon bowed her head.
"This is a fate we cannot escape."
Grief lay heavy in her voice.
"The barbarians come for us are soldiers of an empire the world will not see twice. And we are nothing but a nation already entering its death."
She lifted her head. What the girl saw in her eyes made her flinch.
"A great many people will die."
Their numbers would choke the rivers and raise up mountains. Women and children would be dragged away, and the nation would sink into slavery.
"And we are among them."
Run? Impossible. This was a current that could neither be fled nor endured.
Fate.
One who had given up because she knew too much looked at the girl.
"Then you, at least, must run."
"What?"
The raccoon drew her into an embrace.
"I cannot save the others. But I can save you."
"Don't be absurd!"
The girl shoved her roughly away.
"What is that paltry Heaven, that it should be able to save only me!"
What am I? Only a girl who might have been anywhere. The people living on so steadfastly down below are worth more than I am.
"...Please. I am begging you. Run, while you still can."
The raccoon pleaded. The girl's face twisted.
"Lord San-gun would not wish for this either..."
Happiness bought by turning one's face from others—what worth could it have?
"I will fight. I will not run!"
"Aaah...!!!"
As the girl drew away, the raccoon broke into sobs.
"Please. You must not go there..."
She could not catch hold of the girl, as if someone would not permit anything further.
"O Heaven... I beg You...! Take this wretched life if You will. Only please—save the girl! Save them all!"
She flung herself down and prayed. The sky flushed red, and she trembled in the red light.
"It can no longer be changed..."
From the moment the girl came to the village, from the moment Heaven gave the raccoon an answer, the matter had already been decided.
"Fate. A cruel, cruel fate...!"
There was no escaping it. No escaping fate.
A shadow fell across her.
"You..."
Even as the light was driven back and darkness settled, there was gold that did not lose its shine. Hope kindled in the raccoon's eyes.
"I beg you. I will give you all I have. Please—save them."
The girl. Everyone.
The shadow turned away.
"You cannot do it alone!"
The shadow growled, as if to tell her to be silent. Looking into his eyes, the raccoon understood. She had no right—no right to set so much as a foot in this fight. There was no need for one who only begged for help, and no need to take help from such a person.
"...May battle favor you."
The shadow sprang into the forest, and the forest, asleep in darkness, welcomed him.
Neigh!
A horse cried out.
Whoosh.
Fire flared.
Kyaaaak!
Someone screamed.
"A t-tiger—why?!"
A man came into view with his hair bound in a thin queue. A barbarian. More of them appeared behind him, close to ten.
"Kuheoheong!"
He tore into the one at the front. The horse's neck snapped, and the man fell and died.
"Don't panic! Loose your arrows and kill it!"
A rain of arrows hissed between the trees. Such things could not even pierce the hide.
"Keoheong!"
He could not know how many he might save. He knew only that he would give all he had for the child.
Even if the enemy was fate.